Fractured Fairy Tales.(marriages of royalty)(Brief Article)

Crown prince Willem-Alexander can only wish he knew when his wedding day will be. His mother, Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands, wants him to wait for the unseemly public protests to die down before he goes ahead with plans to marry his 29-year-old Argentine sweetheart. Still, the outcry keeps getting worse.

Few Netherlanders have much objection to Maxima Zorreguieta. Her vivacity, beauty and brains have conquered even the notoriously stiff- necked Beatrix. But polls say 40 percent of the Dutch people don't want the young woman's father at the wedding. A few parliamentarians insist the prince should abdicate before marrying into such a family. Why? Jorge Zorreguieta, 73, was a high-ranking Argentine government official during the "dirty war" of 1976-83, when the junta tortured and killed more than 10,000 suspected leftists. Although he has been charged with no crime and has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing, Dutch human-rights activists are calling for a full investigation.

Forget the Prince of Wales and his star-crossed romance with Camilla Parker Bowles. Their royal frustrations are sweet nothings compared with the melodramas now being played out by some of Europe's other heirs apparent. The ongoing saga of Willem and Maxima isn't even the most lurid of the lot. This summer Norway's royal family is planning three days of nationwide feasting and dancing to mark the Aug. 25 wedding of Crown Prince Haakon and his live-in girlfriend, an admitted veteran of Oslo's drugged-out house-party scene and a single mother whose former boyfriend was a convicted cocaine supplier. Since Haakon announced their engagement the monarchy's approval rating has fallen from 75 percent to 64 percent--a level of support most world leaders just dream of. One member of the court says: "What the decision cost him in popularity among older people, he gained among the young."

A few Norwegians are protesting. Bernt Nilsen, leader of a fledgling republican movement, is trying to get people to boycott the wedding festivities. But Nilsen isn't likely to spoil the party: these days nearly half the ...